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College football coaches discuss playoff

ATLANTA -- A week after Oklahoma spared the nation months of second-guessing the Bowl Championship Series, football coaches got down to their first order of offseason business.

They second-guessed the Bowl Championship Series.

Between sessions of the American Football Coaches Association convention, they whispered about the chance Florida State had to create split national champions if it had defeated Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.

The men in charge of some of the nation's top programs talked about adopting a playoff system, then agreed those plans amounted to exactly that -- just talk.

''I'm a young man, and I don't think I'm going to see it,'' said Lou Holtz, the 64-year-old South Carolina coach.

Holtz, who turned an 0-11 Gamecocks team into Southeastern Conference contenders and Outback Bowl champions, said he favored a four-team playoff -- two simple rounds to determine an obvious winner.

But Holtz knows the reality: The BCS, which relies on a computer formula to produce a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup.

''I guess it's worked out OK,'' he said.

But Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum had a BCS beef. The Orange Bowl included Florida State and not Miami, which beat the Seminoles earlier in the season.

''There ought to be strong consideration given to that,'' he said. ''That ought to be the ultimate thing.''

Slocum sees the appeal of a playoff system -- an undisputed champion, consistency with other NCAA sports, huge ratings for a title game. But he sees just as many questions.

For example: What happens to the bowls? And, perhaps more important, who gets the money?

''I don't think there's a perfect way to do it,'' he said.

There were even a few suggestions from Sooners coach Bob Stoops -- who, after Oklahoma smothered Florida State's offense to become undisputed champions, had less reason than anyone to propose changes to the BCS.

Had the Sooners stumbled against the Seminoles, both teams would have finished with one loss. Miami, Washington, Oregon State and Virginia Tech all finished 11-1.

Stoops' answer: More championship games at the conference level to weed out weaker teams. Oklahoma had to beat Kansas State, ranked No. 8 at the time, just to have a shot at the Orange Bowl.

Only two conferences with BCS ties -- the Big 12, home to Oklahoma, and the Southeastern Conference -- hold annual championship games. The Big East, Atlantic Coast Conference, Pac-10 and Big Ten do not.

''People gripe about Miami, but let them play another game,'' Stoops said. ''Let the Big 10 do it. Let the Pac-10 do it.''

Not that Stoops expects that to happen soon.

So the Oklahoma coach is joining hundreds of others at the Atlanta convention this week in hours of seminars on practice regimes, team discipline and recruiting -- topics that have considerably more relevance.

At least for now.

None of the coaches expects talk of a playoff to die.

''But there's just too many variables to say what a playoff would involve,'' Slocum said. ''It's just talk right now.''